NEW ORLEANS - Two years ago, the Sun Belt Conference’s football winning percentage ranked atop the “Group of Five” conferences in non-conference games against those peer leagues.
 
Sun Belt commissioner Karl Benson says that getting back to that point has to be the league’s top priority as the 2015 college football season draws near.
 
“Our goal is to be the best conference of our five peer conferences,” Benson said at the Sun Belt’s annual Football Media Day Monday at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans. “Every commissioner talks about how important non-conference games are and how important non-conference scheduling is, but in light of the new College Football Playoff model, those are the games that we really need to focus on.”
 
The Sun Belt is paired with Conference USA, the American, the Mid-American and the Mountain West in the “Group of Five,” with the top-rated team from those five combined league guaranteed a Jan. 1 bowl appearance every year under the CFP guidelines. This year, the top team from that group will play in either the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl on Dec. 31 or the Vizio Fiesta Bowl on Jan. 1.
 
“It’s not a matter of if, it’s when the Sun Belt team becomes the highest-rated champion and plays in one of those games,” Benson said. “We have teams that, if the stars are aligned, they could be that 12-0 team. As we start this season, we have teams that have scheduled strategically.”
 
Benson, who kicked off Monday’s Media Day activities with his annual “State of the Sun Belt” address to the over 150 credentialed media in attendance, said that many of the league schools are now scheduling non-conference football games in a manner that helps with the league’s efforts against those peer conferences.
 
“As we’ve looked at it over the last three years, our presidents and chancellors are getting it, our athletic directors are getting it,” he said. “Our coaches have always gotten it. They know they need to remove the addiction of those money games ... focusing on eliminating those two-for-one games and go straight for one-for-one games.
 
“I’ve seen football grow in this conference for the last three years, and I’ve seen the commitment made on each of our campuses in terms of facilities, in terms of coaches’ salaries, and not just head coaches, to maintain continuity.”
 
Competition among the Sun Belt and its peer leagues is about more than bragging rights and placing one team in a New Year’s bowl, though. The payout to each conference from the CFP is based on that success, and in last year’s first CFP season the Mountain West received the highest share as the top-rated “Group of Five” league. The Sun Belt’s share was a still an all-time high for the league, but success in games against peer conferences is a direct correlation to CFP revenue.
 
“The financial stakes are so important that those are the games we really need to focus on,” Benson said. “As nice as it is and as great as it is to win a game against the ‘big five,’ in the system that we have, the competition against our peer conferences is so important. We’re creating a scheduling structure that will be beneficial to the Sun Belt in the future.”
 
League teams play 45 non-conference games this season, with 35 of them against the other nine FBS conferences. Nineteen of those 35 games are against the power five conferences and 16 are against peer conferences.
 
Sun Belt members will also play games outside of the conference in the post-season, with the league now boasting a record four guaranteed bowl tie-ins. The league adds the new AutoNation Cure Bowl in Orlando to a lineup that includes the R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl (for the 15th season), the GoDaddy Bowl in Mobile (seventh year) and the Raycom Media Camellia Bowl (second year).
 
“I stood before you two years ago and said our goal was to go from two guaranteed bowl spots to four,” Benson said. “We’ve achieved that goal going into this season. We had a great start last year up in Montgomery, and we know going into this year we will have a great venue and a great destination in Orlando.”
 
Six of the Sun Belt’s 11 football-playing institutions were bowl-eligible last year, with UL Lafayette winning the New Orleans Bowl, Arkansas State playing in the GoDaddy Bowl and South Alabama making its first-ever bowl appearance in the Camellia Bowl.
 
“Is four the right number?” Benson said on bowl tie-ins. “Ask our coaches and the answer is no. Last winter and spring, we had serious conversations in Little Rock and Austin, and we thought we were going to get to number five. Unfortunately it did not materialize, but I’m sure that those conversations will continue once this season is over.
 
“The Sun Belt is the only conference in the FBS that is really under-represented in terms of conference agreements versus the average number of bowl eligible teams. Our average is over five bowl-eligible teams per year based on the last four years, so we will continue to explore and I have confidence that we will land a fifth game.”